medieval

In late-medieval England, public performances of learning and expertise were political performances, that not only expressed one’s mastery of a subject but also an ability and right to speak to it in public view. Whether speaking to knowledge of theology, or medicine, or carpentry, these public professions of knowledge were subject to scrutiny both institutional (e.g. the Church or craft guilds) and informal (by lay churchgoers or prospective customers). Drama offered a form in which claims to knowledge could be exaggerated, parodied, or reproduced for effect--in a word, staged--to invite medieval audiences to rethink the social and political dimensions to such performances.

MEARCSTAPA (monsters: the experimental association for the research of cryptozoology through scholarly theory and practical application)

deadline for submissions:

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Monstrous Medievalism: Toxic Appropriations of the Middle Ages in Modern Popular Culture and Thought (Leeds 2018)

MEARCSTAPA plans to submit a session of 3 or 4 papers to the 2018 International Medieval Congress at Leeds. The Congress theme is “Memory.” Our hope is that this session will run as a twin-session to our proposed panel for Kalamazoo 2018 on Monstrous Medievalisms.

The International Association for Robin Hood Studies (IARHS) is sponsoring two sessions at the 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 10-13, 2018. Please see below for session details and submission information. 1. Multicultural, Multimedia Outlaws (Session of Papers)The outlaw figure is a universal cross-cultural phenomenon.

We seek papers to round out an exciting collection of essays on the subject of “food and feast in premodern outlaw tales.” Although we are happy to consider abstracts on Middle English outlaws, we are especially interested in work that considers topics related to food and/or feasting in the following areas: pre-Conquest English, medieval Scandinavian, medieval continental, or early modern outlaws in history, literature, and/or culture. We welcome essays from any discipline. Please send an author bio and abstract for a 6,000-8,000 word essay to Melissa Ridley Elmes at MElmes@lindenwood.edu by August 1, 2017.

One significant feature of Medieval culture is quest for salvation and justice. For example, Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights incorporates complex human emotions into its pastoral horizon, where God and Satan, good and evil compete to deny Eden as paradise. Many writers offer texts in which social and material desires decline the land of milk and honey, and memory of human goodness turns reality into ironic space in which social unrest and private disquiet challenge existence. In a way, split memory of edenic delights produces rich legacy. We invite papers to address theme of memory of delights in history, literature, religion, philosophy, and other fields, both in Medieval period and across ages. (2018 Leeds IMC conference theme: Memory.

This panel seek proposals dealing with ways of seeing and perceiving the world from the Middle Age to our day. Papers dealing with miraculous accounts, spectacular performances, and travel narratives that explore both allegorical and conceptual visions are welcome. From books of saints, to Iberian travelers through Europe, Asia and the Americas, this panel seeks to examine the narrative voice of those who moved either physically or mentally from one space to another while discovering, performing or even forging, a wondrous world that further complicates notions of perception, performativity and or even contemporary notions of post-truth.

This panel seeks any and all papers on Old English literature (and Beowulf), especially in relation to this year's theme of sight, visuality, and ways of seeing.

Individual paper presentations will be between 15 and 20 minutes long. Please submit proposals via the online system by June 26, 2017. The PAMLA 2017 Conference will be held at the lovely Chaminade University of Honolulu (with the official conference hotel being the Ala Moana) from Friday, November 10 to Sunday, November 12.